A Gulf of Mexico rig crew tried to activate their blowout preventer’s shear rams to cut a pipe and shut off the well before they were forced to flee Tuesday, sources close to the investigation told WWL-TV.
But for reasons that investigators will now try to determine, the device didn’t stem the flow of natural gas that caught fire 15 hours later and melted portions of the cantilevered jack-up rig Wednesday.
Rig crew activated BOP before abandoning blown out well
http://www.wwltv.com/news/local/Grand-Isle-rig-fire-BP-explosion-share-similarities-216846311.html
Tuesday’s blowout happened in shallow 154-foot waters, and the blowout preventer sits not on the sea floor but within the crew’s reach above the water’s surface.
But like with Macondo, the crew was at the bottom of a well, pulling a pipe back out of the hole when something went seriously wrong. Also, the crew on the Hercules 256 jack-up rig, which was drilling for Walter, had about 30 minutes to try to fix things before the unwanted incursion of natural gas turned into a full-fledged blowout, sources told WWL-TV.